a primer in mexican border wall building economics

So, here's a quick lesson in Mexican border wall building economics for those who have not yet figured it out yet.

It's clear that the president is going to at least try to build his wall even though the mere announcement of this intent has already set back relations with Mexico. Is Mexico going to pay for it? Of course not. They are not going to pay for now, or ever for that matter.

To get around this, the president says, we will pay for it up front, and recoup the costs directly from Mexico later. How is he going to do it? Apparently, by imposing tariffs on Mexican goods coming into this country, the logic being that the Mexicans will have no choice in paying the tariffs if they want to sell their goods here. the figure being bandied about is a twenty percent tariff.

sooooo.....

We, the American people are paying for this wall up front to the tune of however many billions it actually costs to build, including the inevitable cost overruns, because since when do these projects actually end up costing what they initially say they will. And then? Who do you think pays the tariffs? Mexico? All the tariffs do is raise the price of Mexican goods on the theory that it makes it more difficult to sell the products here in the United States. The person who ultimately ends up actually paying the tariff is the person at the end of the line -- the consumer. So, if a company in Mexico is importing, for argument's sake, a bottle of rum that would ordinarily be sold for $10.00 in an American store, there is now going to be a twenty percent tariff, $2.00, that will be imposed upon it at the border, paid for by, yes, the Mexican company importing that bottle. To recoup the cost, as any intelligent company would do, the price of the bottle will now include the tariff. That now runs the price of the bottle up to $12.00, meaning that ultimately, we have paid the tariff, not the Mexicans.

in other words, the wall has been built and paid for entirely by the American people, the Mexican company has recouped their costs, the Mexican people have paid nothing and we, the American consumer, have now paid for building the wall and the tariff imposed to recover the costs of building the wall. in other words, we the American people, have paid for this stinking wall twice, and destroyed relations with Mexico in the process.

Brilliant...